Challenge a DGCCRF fine: appeals and time limits in France

How to challenge a DGCCRF fine

You challenge a DGCCRF fine in two stages. Before the decision, you answer the notice of the intended fine in writing: within one month for fines under the French Consumer Code, within 60 days for fines under the French Commercial Code, such as late payment fines. After the decision, you can ask the authority to review it or apply to the administrative court within two months of notification, a period extended by two months for persons residing outside France.

Updated: November 2026. Key provisions: Articles L. 522-1 to L. 522-10 and R. 522-2 of the French Consumer Code; Article L. 470-2 of the French Commercial Code; Articles R. 421-1 and R. 421-7 of the French Code of Administrative Justice.

The DGCCRF (the French authority for competition, consumer affairs and fraud control) and its local offices, the DDPP (departmental directorates for the protection of populations) and the DREETS (regional directorates for the economy, employment, labour and solidarity), can impose administrative fines themselves, without going to court. The same facts can also lead to a settlement or to criminal prosecution. Each route has its own procedure, ceilings and time limits, and the most useful work is done before the decision. A lawyer for DGCCRF and DDPP inspections can tell you which time limits are already running.

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Which sanction are you facing?

Administrative fines under the Consumer Code

The authority for competition and consumer affairs imposes administrative fines for breaches of the provisions listed in Articles L. 511-5, L. 511-6 and L. 511-7 of the Consumer Code, and for failure to comply with injunctions (Article L. 522-1). The decision is taken by the Director General of the DGCCRF, the head of its national investigation service, the director of the DREETS or the director of the DDPP, each of whom may delegate signature to senior officials (Article R. 522-1).

Ceilings are set breach by breach. For example, for an individual and a company respectively:

• pre-contractual information: €3,000 and €15,000 (Article L. 131-1);
• right of withdrawal: €15,000 and €75,000 (Article L. 242-13);
• black-listed unfair terms: €15,000 and €75,000, which can rise to 4% of average annual turnover, or €2 million where no turnover information is available, when the fine follows an EU cross-border cooperation request about a widespread infringement (Article L. 241-2);
• information duties on online reviews and platforms: €75,000 and €375,000 (Article L. 131-4);
• failure to comply with an injunction: €15,000 and €75,000, or the fine for the original breach if higher (Article L. 532-1).

Administrative fines under the Commercial Code: payment terms and the DREETS

Breaches of the business-to-business rules in Title IV of Book IV of the Commercial Code, including payment terms, are sanctioned under Article L. 470-2 of that code. Payment-term inspections are usually carried out by the DREETS. Late payment carries a fine of up to €75,000 for an individual and €2 million for a company, raised to €150,000 and €4 million for a repeat breach within two years of the date on which a first sanction became final (Article L. 441-16). The procedure differs from the Consumer Code on two points: you have 60 days to answer, and the notice must tell you that you can consult the file (Article L. 470-2, IV). For the rules themselves, see our guide to payment terms between businesses in France.

Criminal offences

Some breaches are criminal offences, tried by the criminal court (tribunal correctionnel). The main one is the misleading commercial practice: two years' imprisonment and a €300,000 fine for individuals (Article L. 132-2). The fine can be raised, in proportion to the benefits derived, to 10% of average annual turnover over the last three years, or to 50% of the cost of the advertising or practice (80% for certain environmental claims). When the offence is committed online, the penalties rise to five years and €750,000. Imprisonment rises to three years when the practice was followed by one or more contracts (Article L. 132-2-1). For companies, the maximum fine is five times that for individuals (Article 131-38 of the French Criminal Code).

Settlements

Two settlement routes exist: the administrative transaction, available since 2 July 2025, and the criminal transaction, which requires the prosecutor's agreement. Both are explained below.

Before the decision: the adversarial phase

What the notice must contain

No administrative fine can be imposed without a written adversarial phase. Under the Consumer Code, a copy of the inspection report (procès-verbal) is sent to you (Article L. 522-4). Before any decision, the authority must inform you in writing of the sanction it intends to impose, tell you that you may be assisted by counsel of your choice, and invite you to submit written and, where relevant, oral observations (Article L. 522-5). Only once that time limit has passed can it impose the fine, by a reasoned decision. If it intends to publish the decision, it must also tell you, at this stage, the nature and terms of the publication envisaged (Article L. 522-6).

One month, not 60 days, under the Consumer Code

The time limit for observations is one month for Consumer Code fines (Article R. 522-2). The 60-day period often quoted applies to Commercial Code fines, such as late payment fines (Article L. 470-2, IV). Check which code the notice relies on before planning your answer.

What your observations can cover

The observations are the first opportunity to reduce or avoid the fine, and often the most useful one. They can address:

• the facts: what the report gets wrong, leaves out or takes out of context;
• the legal qualification: whether the provision relied on really applies to your business;
• proportionality: the seriousness and duration of the breach, your size and financial situation;
• corrective measures already taken, with dates and evidence, including refunds to consumers;
• publication: whether it is justified at all and, if so, its form and duration.

What was said during an earlier interview often shapes the file: see our article on mistakes during a DGCCRF interview. The content and tone of the observations, and the documents to attach, should be settled with counsel.

Time bar

Under the Consumer Code, the authority's power to sanction a breach is time-barred after three full years from the day it was committed, for breaches carrying a fine above €3,000 for an individual or €15,000 for a company (Article L. 522-2). For breaches carrying a fine at or below those amounts, the period is one year (Article L. 522-3). The time bar applies only if no act aimed at investigating, recording or sanctioning the breach has taken place within that period. Under the Commercial Code, the period is three years (Article L. 470-2, II).

After the decision: how to appeal

Request for review and hierarchical appeal

You can ask the official who signed the decision to withdraw or reduce the fine (recours gracieux), or refer it to that official's hierarchical superior (recours hiérarchique). These requests are optional: you can go straight to court. Filed within the two-month time limit, they interrupt it (Article L. 411-2 of the French Code on Relations between the Public and the Administration). Two months of silence amounts to a rejection (Article L. 231-4 of the same code), after which the two months for going to court start again. If you use both requests, file both within the initial two months: the court time limit restarts only once both have been rejected (Article L. 411-2).

A request for review is useful when you have new evidence, or when the decision did not deal with your observations. The wording matters: it should not read as an admission.

Application to the administrative court

The application to the administrative court (tribunal administratif) must be filed within two months of notification of the decision (Article R. 421-1 of the French Code of Administrative Justice). For persons residing outside France, this period is extended by two months, to four months in total, when the court sits in metropolitan France (Article R. 421-7). The competent court is in principle the one in whose area the authority that took the decision has its seat, not the court where your company is based (Article R. 312-1).

The application can raise procedural grounds, such as signature by an official without authority, a flawed adversarial phase or an unreasoned decision, and substantive grounds, such as an error of fact, an error of law or a disproportionate amount. For administrative sanctions, the court reviews both the facts and the amount, and can annul or reduce the fine. Its judgment can be appealed to the administrative court of appeal.

Urgent suspension (référé-suspension)

The decision is enforceable from notification, and an appeal does not suspend it. Once an application to annul or vary the decision has been filed, the urgent applications judge can suspend it, or some of its effects, if urgency justifies it and a ground creates serious doubt as to its legality (Article L. 521-1 of the Code of Administrative Justice). Urgency is often argued against publication, whose effect on reputation cannot be undone, or where immediate payment would endanger the business.

Payment of the fine

The fine is recovered as a non-tax debt owed to the State (Article L. 522-9 of the Consumer Code; Article L. 470-2, IX of the Commercial Code). For Consumer Code fines, the payment order (titre de perception) is issued by the minister responsible for consumer affairs (Article R. 522-6). The payment order has its own challenge procedure and time limits, separate from the appeal against the sanction: have it reviewed as soon as it arrives. In France, the fine cannot be deducted from taxable profits (Article 39, 2 of the French General Tax Code).

Publication of the sanction (name and shame)

Consumer Code fines: publication is optional

A fine decision can be published at the expense of the person sanctioned (Article L. 522-6). It is a choice for the authority, not an automatic consequence, and it must be announced during the adversarial phase. Publication can be made in the press, online or by display, and these can be combined. It can cover all or part of the decision or take the form of a notice, including in the Official Journal; the media designated cannot refuse. A display cannot exceed two months (Articles R. 522-3 to R. 522-5).

If you do not publish when required, a daily penalty of up to 0.05% of worldwide turnover, or €1,500 per day if turnover is not known, can apply until publication, capped at €150,000 in total (Article L. 522-6).

Commercial Code fines: systematic for late payment

Under the Commercial Code, publication is optional in general. Late payment fines, however, are always published on the authority's website and, at the company's expense, in a publication authorised to carry legal notices in the département where it is domiciled. If the company does not publish, the authority can give it formal notice to do so under a daily penalty of €150 (Article L. 470-2, V).

Challenging publication

Publication is part of the decision and is challenged with it, before the administrative court and, where there is urgency, through an urgent suspension request. Arguments usually concern whether publication is necessary, whether it is proportionate, and its form and duration.

Settling instead of contesting: transactions

The administrative transaction (since July 2025)

When it notifies the intended fine, the authority can also propose an administrative transaction (Article L. 522-9-1 of the Consumer Code). The proposal suspends the one-month time limit for observations. It states the sum to be paid to the Treasury, which takes account of your commitments and must be lower than the maximum fine. The agreement may include obligations to stop the breaches, prevent their repetition and compensate consumers, and it may be published. If there is no agreement, or if you do not pay or do not meet the obligations, the ordinary sanction procedure goes ahead.

The criminal transaction

For criminal offences, the authority can propose a settlement with the prosecutor's agreement, as long as prosecution has not started (Article L. 523-1). It is available for minor offences (contraventions) under Books I to IV of the Consumer Code, for offences under the code that carry no imprisonment or up to three years, and for misleading commercial practices. The amount takes account of your commitments and must be lower than the maximum fine. A copy of the report is attached to the proposal (Article L. 523-2). Once you have met all your obligations within the time limit, prosecution is barred (Article L. 523-4).

A transaction avoids a trial, but it has a cost and consequences, including towards consumers who may claim compensation. Whether to accept, negotiate or refuse should be decided only after the file has been reviewed with counsel.

Criminal prosecution and combined sanctions

Before the criminal court

If the case goes to trial, the defence turns on whether each element of the offence is established and on the penalty. The prosecutor may also choose an alternative to a trial. A judgment of the criminal court given after an adversarial hearing can be appealed within ten days of its delivery (Article 498 of the French Code of Criminal Procedure).

Combined sanctions

Several administrative sanctions for separate breaches are executed cumulatively (Article L. 522-7 of the Consumer Code; Article L. 470-2, VII of the Commercial Code). Under the Commercial Code, when an administrative fine may be combined with a criminal fine for the same facts, the total cannot exceed the higher of the two maximums (Article L. 470-2, VI). The Consumer Code chapter on administrative fines has no equivalent rule, so the proportionality of combined sanctions must be argued case by case.

Frequently asked questions

How do I challenge a DGCCRF fine?

In two stages. Before the decision, answer the notice of the intended fine within the time limit: one month under the Consumer Code, 60 days under the Commercial Code. After the decision, ask for a review or apply to the administrative court within two months, with an urgent suspension request if needed.

How long do I have to appeal a DGCCRF fine?

Two months from notification of the decision (Article R. 421-1 of the Code of Administrative Justice). A request for review filed within that period interrupts it, and the two months start again from its rejection.

Our company is based outside France. Do we get more time to appeal?

Yes. For persons residing abroad, the time limit is extended by two months when the court sits in metropolitan France, which gives four months in total (Article R. 421-7). Do not wait for the last day: the decision is enforceable in the meantime, and an urgent suspension request depends on showing urgency.

Can I negotiate the amount of a DGCCRF fine?

The fine itself is set by the authority, but your observations, the corrective measures and any compensation paid to consumers weigh on the amount. Since July 2025, the authority can also propose an administrative transaction for a lower sum (Article L. 522-9-1). For criminal offences, a criminal transaction is possible with the prosecutor's agreement (Article L. 523-1).

Does an appeal suspend payment of the fine?

No. Only the urgent applications judge can suspend the decision, if there is urgency and a serious doubt as to its legality (Article L. 521-1 of the Code of Administrative Justice).

Can the publication of a DGCCRF fine be avoided?

For Consumer Code fines, publication is optional and must be announced during the adversarial phase: that is the time to argue against it. Late payment fines under the Commercial Code are always published (Article L. 470-2, V).

What is the difference between a DGCCRF fine and a DREETS fine?

The DREETS carries out DGCCRF missions at regional level. Its director can impose Consumer Code fines (Article R. 522-1), and the DREETS handles most business-to-business matters, including payment terms. The code applied matters more than the office: it sets the time limit for observations (one month or 60 days) and decides whether publication is systematic.

Is a DGCCRF fine tax-deductible?

Not in France: fines and penalties imposed for breaches of legal obligations cannot be deducted from taxable profits (Article 39, 2 of the French General Tax Code). Treatment in other countries depends on local tax law.

Which court hears an appeal against a DGCCRF fine?

The administrative court, in principle the one in whose area the authority that took the decision has its seat (Article R. 312-1 of the Code of Administrative Justice). Criminal fines are a matter for the criminal courts.

Who can help us?

A lawyer who handles DGCCRF, DDPP and DREETS procedures in both administrative and criminal law, from the first notice to the court. At Victoris, the file is explained to you in English and the exchanges with the authority are handled in French.

Key actions

• Notice of intended fine received: identify the code applied, note the time limit (one month or 60 days), ask for the file and prepare written observations.
• Transaction proposed: assess the amount, the obligations and the publication before answering; the time limit for observations is suspended meanwhile.
• Decision received: note the notification date, calculate the time limit (two months, four from abroad) and decide on a request for review, an application to the court and, if needed, an urgent suspension.
• Payment order received: have it reviewed at once; it has its own time limits.

Article written by Guillaume Leclerc, lawyer at the Paris Bar, 34 avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris. Working languages: French and English.